Digital Products for Teens

“We live in a digital world. But digital technology can only be as amazing as the people who use it. Your pictures. Your music. Your creativity. Introduce the world to the digital you with Jam digital products.Jam. You. Digital.”

KB Gear Interactive was a new company with big aspirations – to own the market for under-$100 digital consumer electronics. The company was going after the elusive teen market for its proprietary Jam brand of low-priced digital cameras, MP3 players, digital sound devices and web graphics tablets. Karwoski & Courage Public Relations had a brand to build.

Karwoski & Courage and KB Gear waged a full-contact marketing public relations campaign, grabbing the attention of teens and young adults while they were online, reading their favorite magazine, shopping, surfing channels or going to a rock concert. The fully integrated marketing strategy included advertising, database and direct mail, merchandising, promotions and public relations.

CHALLENGE/OPPORTUNITY:

KB Gear was a new company in a crowded category – hip, digital products for teens. Research told Karwoski & Courage that teens were sophisticated, technology-savvy, brand loyal and had access to loads of their own and their parents’ money. The agency also discovered that teens deem a brand “cool” by themselves, and prefer not to have input from marketers.

And while KB Gear was the first company to compete in under-$100 digital products category, competition was quickly catching up. Was there a distinguishing factor on which Karwoski & Courage could capitalize? In addition to the digital products themselves, KB Gear offered an online component that enhanced each product in its Jam line. Visitors to Jamonline.com could do everything from printing, storing and e-mailing pictures to downloading music, from creating sound files to publishing personal web sites. This unique product element allowed Karwoski & Courage to capitalize on a top teen pastime – surfing the Internet.

RESEARCH:

Extensive research was conducted on teens, their purchasing habits, their savvy with technology and Internet usage. In addition, online surveys were conducted by Snowball.com (the largest web site for teens) on behalf of KB Gear.

Jam products went on a 36-city tour with the Vans Warped Music Tour – the largest and best-attended alternative music festival of the year.

A video news release was produced positioning Jam products as perfect holiday gifts for teens. Two Teen Magazine editors were interviewed for the VNR.

A “Jam World” kiosk toured shopping malls along the East Coast. At this highly interactive booth, teens were able to e-mail a digital picture greeting as well as test musical skills or design and publish a web site.

KB Gear showed off its stuff at a handful of major industry trade shows, making contacts with retailers, media and analysts.

Teens around the U.S. received a hilarious e-mail message from Jam’s online messenger “Sam the Hand” – a hand puppet created with Jam products. This online viral marketing tactic created buzz for the brand through non-traditional means.

Jam aligned on co-promotional efforts with online powerhouses such as AOL and Snowball.com, and formed a coalition with the White House’s whatsyourantidrug.com initiative – the largest teen anti-drug campaign ever launched in this country.

A multi-million dollar TV campaign featuring the entire Jam brand aired on MTV (the number one ranked network for teens and ‘tweens) during back-to-school and holiday.